


Five Man Band

by ami_ven



Series: SG-22 [2]
Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Humor, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 08:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: SG-22 are assigned a new member.[Each chapter originally posted as individual drabbles on LiveJournal]





	1. The Fifth Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s Billy Chen’s first trip through the ‘gate— but SG-22 is used to missions turning out like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompts "taken" & "again and again"

Second Lieutenant Billy Chen wakes up to a dimly-lit room and a pounding headache. It takes a moment for him to remember what happened, since his brain isn’t being particularly cooperative. 

Finally, _finally_ he was assigned a gate team— temporarily, of course, and not SG-1, but he hadn’t expected that right out of the Air Force Academy. It was hard not to fidget during the briefing, so much that he’d hardly gotten more than a glance at his new team, then he was stepping through the gate to an _alien world_.

Then, of course, he was hit with a stun blast and woke up here… wherever that was.

From his left, Billy hears a rustling. “Dammit,” mutters a female voice, belonging to his new CO, Captain Gryffydd. “Not another naquadah mine.”

Billy sits up slowly, his head still throbbing. The other three members of his team— First Lieutenant Tobias, Gunnery Sergeant Vicks and Dr. Flannigan— are getting unsteadily to their feet, and Captain Gryffydd is moving between them, as though checking for injuries.

She stops when she gets to Billy. “You okay?” she asks. “Zat blasts can be pretty nasty the first couple of times.”

Billy manages to nod. “Yes, sir. I mean, ma’am.”

“Stick with Jason, kid,” she tells him, just as Billy begins to hear a clanking sound growing louder. “I know you outrank him, but he’s got more experience at this. Don’t draw attention to yourself, let me do all the talking, and keep your eyes open.”

He nods again. “Yes, sir— ma’am. Um, what…?”

He breaks off when three armored Jaffa march into the room. They all have black symbols on their foreheads, that Billy doesn’t recognize, a stylized sort of sun with squiggly rays.

Captain Gryffydd grins at them. “Ah, good. I believe our bags have already been taken to our rooms, but I wanted to schedule a facial and a mud wrap—”

She breaks off when the lead guard jabs her with the butt of his staff weapon. “Silence! You will serve our glorious master, Mithra. Work well or you will die!”

Billy tries to keep in step with Gunny Vicks as the Jaffa lead them through stone corridors. Ahead, Lieutenant Tobias has taken Captain Gryffydd’s elbow, talking softly to her. Dr. Flannigan appears on Billy’s other side. “Mithra, Iranian god of light,” he says. “In mythology, he was—”

“—incredibly boring, I’m sure,” Gunny Vicks interrupts. “Thanks, Lee.”

Billy opens his mouth, but Captain Gryffydd says loudly, “We’re getting the premium tour, right?”

That gets her another jab with a staff weapon, and Billy keeps his mouth shut. It’s even easier after that— working a mine by hand is more work than he’s ever done at once, worse than Basic Training by several magnitudes. This isn’t anything like Billy imagined when he’d been brought into the Stargate Program. He’d been told it was dangerous, and amazing, and the chance of a lifetime, but this…

Beside him, the rest of his new team work like they’ve done this before, which Gunny Vicks tells him they have, _a lot_. Captain Gryffydd keeps saying things, loudly, like “When do we get our coffee break?” and “I demand to see my union rep!” until one of the guards knocks her down with a vicious backhand. She gets back up as soon as he’s gone, grinning around a split lip, and goes right back to work.

After what seems like days, SG-22 and the rest of the grubby miners are marched to the surface and into a ramshackle building, where they’re unceremoniously handed bowls of gray mush. If Billy wasn’t so exhausted, he’d probably feel embarrassed by how useless he’d been, barely managing enough work to get by. 

“Eat up,” Captain Gryffydd tells him, plopping on the floor beside him. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“Not tonight?” Dr. Flannigan asks. “I thought we were going for a record?”

“Nah,” says Gunny Vicks. “We’ve got to start over again, new Goa’uld, and all. If this was Hecate still, we’d have escaped already.”

“Yeah, but we blew her up,” adds Lieutenant Tobias.

Billy’s jaw drops. “You blew up a Goa’uld?” he asks, then snaps his mouth shut. “Sir,” he adds. 

The captain waves a dismissing hand. “Not an important one. Finish up, boys, and get some sleep. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

Around them, the miners are lying down to sleep right there on the floor. Billy tries to keep his distance when his team bunks down in a far corner, but he falls dead asleep in seconds and wakes in a pile of arms and legs as the sun rises.

“Oh, god,” he mutters, but Captain Gryffydd is already on her feet. 

“Showtime, boys,” she says. “Who wants to be the distraction today?”

“I’ll take Chen,” says Gunny Vicks, nudging Billy’s arm. 

The captain nods. “And you go with them, Toby. Levi and I will grab our gear and meet you at the ‘gate.”

It turns out that by ‘distraction’, Captain Gryffydd means ‘fistfight’. Gunny Vicks and Lieutenant Tobias pull their punches, but the guards don’t. Fortunately, the other miners join in, and in minutes, they have a full-scale riot on their hands.

Captain Gryffydd reappears in the middle of it, a Jaffa staff weapon in her hands. She passes each of them a handgun and a tac vest. “Levi’s got the ‘gate open,” she says. 

She fires at the at a group of guards approaching from the barracks— but doesn’t see the one behind her. Billy raises his gun and fires. The first bullet pings against the Jaffa’s armor, but the second and third hit home, dropping the guard in a crumpled heap.

Billy stares, and the captain grabs his arm. “Let’s go,” she says, and Billy follows her. He shoots three more guards on the way to the ‘gate, but doesn’t stop to see if they’re alive or not. Then, SG-22 and two dozen miners are through the wormhole and back in the SGC.

Captain Gryffydd comes through last, firing her staff weapon behind her. “Close the iris!” she yells, and it spirals into place.

Dr. Fraiser bustles them all off to the infirmary, where General Hammond meets them. “Thirty-one hours,” he says, with the hint of a smile. “Your record is twenty-seven.”

“New Goa’uld, sir,” says Captain Gryffydd. “But Lieutenant Chen did well out there. He’ll be an asset to whichever team he’s assigned.”

“Is that so?” General Hammond asks. “Lieutenant, your permanent team assignment will be a matter of—”

“Sir?” Billy interrupts. Yesterday morning, he’d never have had the courage, but today he doesn’t even hesitate. “Sir, if I may… I’d like to stay with SG-22. With your permission.”

“Captain Gryffydd?” asks the general, and she glances over her shoulder at her teammates. They don’t say anything, but she grins.

“We’d be happy to have him, sir,” she says, and General Hammond nods.

“Lieutenant Chen, consider yourself permanently attached to SG-22. Debriefing will be in one hour, I suggest you get yourselves cleaned up.”

When he’s gone, Captain Gryffydd claps Billy on the shoulder. “Welcome to SG-22.”


	2. Don't Tell Me the Odds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy is convinced he’s bad luck, but SG-22 think differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "luck of the draw"

There were four SG teams that regularly took new recruits off-world, so it was pure chance that got Billy Chen sent out with SG-22.

Not that it had done him much good since them— on his first mission through the ‘gate, his team had been captured and thrown into a naquadah mine. Captain Gryffydd, Lieutenant Tobias, Gunny Vicks and Dr. Flannigan assured him that it happened to them, often, but that didn’t explain why their second mission ended with a near-fatal rockslide, the third involved all of them getting a rash from their campfire smoke, and on the fourth it rained so much that Billy swore it took him a week to properly dry out.

And now on his fifth (and probably last) off-world mission, they’d been captured by a group of Mongolian-ish native undetected by the first three teams to visit this planet. Plus, they’d gotten their butts kicked and their gear confiscated.

Billy resettled Vicks’s arm over his shoulder, looking over the Marine’s bowed head at Gryffydd, who shouldered his other arm. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said.

“What for?” she asked.

“I’m bad luck,” Billy told her, which had sounded much saner in his head. “I mean…”

He looked behind them at Tobias, limping along and leaning heavily on Flannigan, who had lost his glasses in the fight and squinted at the trees around them. Gryffydd’s left eye was swelling nicely, and she was taking more and more of Vicks’s weight as he stumbled over the uneven ground.

The captain frowned. “Seriously? Because we were all thinking what _good_ luck we’ve had since we got you.”

“What?”

“Okay, maybe our missions haven’t been milkruns,” she said. “But we haven’t been thrown in any naquadah mines for over two months, and I think that’s a record.”

“Beat the last one by two weeks,” Tobias confirmed, tugging Flannigan around a large rock. “And Gryff’s spent less than three days in the infirmary, even with the rockslide and that rash.”

“See?” said Gryffydd. “It’s very lucky we picked you, isn’t it?”

Billy tripped over his feet, which earned him a threatening look from their captors. The guards didn’t seem to care if the members of SG-22 talked, as long as they kept moving.

“I thought new officers were assigned at random?” Billy said.

“Usually, yes,” the captain replied. “But we were good that day, so General Hammond let us pick our own newbie. And we picked good.”

“Sir…”

Vicks raised his head. “Time, sir?” he asked.

Gryffydd glanced over her shoulder at Tobias, who nodded. “Go, Jason,” she said.

The Marine went suddenly and completely limp, taking Billy with him. The guards stopped and began moving closer. 

“On your feet, prisoner,” one snapped.

“He’s hurt!” Gryffydd protested. “You can’t—”

As soon as a guard was close enough, Vicks lashed out, knocking the man cold with one punch. Tobias tackled another, as Vicks lunged at a third. Gryffydd dropped two more with well-aimed fist-sized rocks, leaving three more to draw their short spear-like weapons. Billy ducked a strike and kicked the spear from his opponent’s hand. Gryffydd caught it and slammed the heavy base into the man’s skull, as Tobias and Vicks subdued the last two.

“Do you have a thing for giving concussions because you’ve gotten so many?” asked Flannigan, passing out their tac vests and weapons.

Gryffydd dug into a pocket of her vest for the hard-shelled case that held his spare glasses. “Maybe,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Billy hurried to catch up with her as they headed back toward the ‘gate. “Sir?” he asked. “I mean, ma’am—”

“Lieutenant,” she said, patiently. “Pick one and stick with it.”

“Yes, sir. That trick, pretending to be hurt. That’s not a standard tactic.”

Gryffydd nodded. “No, but standard doesn’t really work out here.”

He nodded, too, then asked, hesitantly, “Sir… did you really pick me?”

The captain grinned. “Billy, one thing I’ve learned going through the ‘gate— when you’re relying on the luck of the draw, it helps to stack the deck.”

Billy blinked at her for a moment, then grinned back. “Yes, sir.”


	3. Sleep Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a long, tiring mission for SG-22, and they’re happy to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" challenge (write a story)

“Thank you, airman,” said Gryff, to the sergeant who had driven them home. 

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. General Hammond wanted me to remind you that you are not to report back to base for at least seventy-two hours.”

She tried to raise an eyebrow, but winced as it pulled painfully at her blackened eye. “We understand, sergeant. Thanks again.”

He saluted, and went back to the car. The five members of SG-22 trudged up their front walk, and Jason pushed open the front door.

“Dinner?” asked Levi, wearily.

It was eight in the morning, Colorado time, but they’d been in the naqudah mine on P2X-993 for six days, and it was just about supper time there.

“Bed,” said Toby. “Janet said she’d send somebody with groceries tomorrow.”

“She oughta get a medal,” put in Billy.

Gryff snorted a laugh, then winced again. “Yeah, she should. Levi…”

The sociologist swayed, half-asleep on his feet, and Jason caught him. “C’mon, Lee,” he said, towing the smaller man toward the stairs. “You’ve got to at least brush your teeth before you pass out.”

Toby caught Gryff’s arm, gently. “Gryff?” he asked.

She looked around at her team— the neat row of butterfly bandages along the edge of Jason’s Marine haircut, the friction burns along the lengths of Levi’s arms, the limp Toby was trying to ignore, the sore shoulder she knew was under Billy’s t-shirt— and nodded. “Yeah.”

Nobody moved.

“Pajamas,” said Gryff, loudly and clearly. “Teeth brushed. Ten minutes.”

Billy frowned, halfway up the stairs with the rest of them. “Ten minutes of what?”

“My room, ten minutes,” Gryff told him, then smiled, softly. “It’s been a tough mission, Billy. But we don’t just watch each other’s backs out in the field.”

He frowned again, then seemed to realize something, looked startled, and blushed faintly. “Really, sir? I mean… I only just…”

Jason rested a hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Go put your pajamas on. And bring a pillow.”

Hours later, Gryff woke to find that she’d missed a hairpin, which had poked her awake. She tossed it toward the dresser, and turned to see Billy blinking at her over Levi’s shoulder.

“Hey,” she said, barely a whisper. “Sleeping okay?”

Billy glanced around at the crowded bed, and smiled. “Yes, sir.”


	4. No Talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If I manage any more full sentences, I won’t be able to sleep, either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "adopted brother"

Gryff woke when a shadow paused in her open doorway. “Can’t sleep?” she asked.

The shadow took a step inside. “No, sir,” said Billy. “Ma’am.”

“Sir is fine. You wanna talk about it?”

“No, sir.”

“Okay,” said Gryff. “Then hurry up, so I can go back to sleep before I wake up.”

Billy blinked at her. “What?”

She flailed at the blanket and managed to flip one edge over. “C’mon, airman. If I manage any more full sentences, I won’t be able to sleep, either.”

The bed dipped as Billy got in on the other side. “Thank you, sir.”

“Anytime.”


	5. Finding Treasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, their bodies weren’t exhausted, but their brains were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "reading"

“Hey,” said Levi, and Billy looked up to find the sociologist leaning against his open doorjamb. “Toby’s declared it a team night in, and it’s your turn to pick the book.”

“Book?” repeated Billy.

It had been late when the five members of SG-22 had finally been cleared by the infirmary and sent back home, but the mission had just been long and no one had been injured. They’d had a few ‘team nights’ since he’d joined them— usually after dangerous missions or serious injuries— where they’d all pile into Captain Gryff’s bed like puppies, something about the others’ steady breathing to keep the nightmares at bay.

Billy hadn’t quite expected that even if their bodies weren’t exhausted, their brains might be, and that once he’d picked a well-creased paperback from his bookshelf, he’d find the other members of his team all sitting up against Gryff’s headboard, cocooned in blankets and pillows.

“You find the right one?” the captain asked. 

Toby, beside her, lifted the blankets to let Billy in, and took the book from him. “ _Treasure Island_ ,” he said. “Nice.”

He passed it to Gryff, who made a show of licking her finger and turning to the first page, as the others wriggled into more comfortable positions around her.

“ _Chapter One…_ ” she began, and Billy fell asleep to the sound of her voice before the _Hispaniola_ had even set sail.


End file.
